Language Journeys: A Customer Perspective

Brooklyn, Sweden

So as I continue my foray back into the Swedish language, I’ve gotten to the point where I pick up on conversations around me that happen to be in Swedish.

For instance, I was in the Laundromat the other day, and while sitting there folding my clothes and reviewing my clothing vocabulary (byxor, T-tröja, strumpor, and more) the woman right next to me seemed to be having a very impassioned conversation in Swedish with her roommates (unless she lives with her parents, and then it was probably them). The next day as I was walking to my office, I heard a group of people behind me speaking in Swedish about where to get coffee and something to eat for breakfast.

I would say that overhearing Swedish in America is never quite as fun as it was while I was in Europe. There, I realized that most Swedes didn’t realize I could understand what they were saying. When they’d talk about me on the bus in Prague, I always made sure to give them a polite “Hej då!” as I exited, just to get a good shocked face out of them.

I’m still not confident enough to just start talking to these people out of the blue after overhearing them, but hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll muster up some courage and just launch into my svenska.

Oh, and as a fun little addition to this post, as I said I might do, here is one of my favorite Swedish songs by the band Familjen: